The Rules of Conflict, according to the various American forces…

Be courteous to everyone, friendly to no one. Decide to be aggressive enough, quickly enough. Have a plan. Have a back-up plan, because the first one probably won’t work.Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet. Do not attend a gunfight with a handgun whose caliber does not start with a “4.” Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. Life is expensive. Move away from your attacker. Distance is your friend. (Lateral & diagonal preferred.) Use cover or concealment as much as possible. Flank your adversary when possible. Protect yours. Always cheat; always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose. In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived. If you are not shooting, you should be communicating your intention to shoot.

Curse bitterly when receiving operational order. Make sure there is extra ammo and extra coffee. Curse bitterly. Curse bitterly. Do not listen to 2nd Lieutenants, it can get you killed. Curse bitterly!

Have a cocktail. Adjust temperature on air conditioner. See what’s on HBO. Ask “what is a gunfight?” Request more funding from Congress with a “killer” Power Point presentation. Wine & dine ‘key’ Congressmen, invite DOD & defense industry executives. Receive funding, set up new command and assemble assets. Declare the assets “strategic” and never deploy them operationally. Hurry to make 13:45 tee time. Make sure the base is as far as possible from the conflict but close enough to have tax exemption.

Today I got to do one of the coolest cases I’ve done in a long time. My patient was a young adult I’ve followed for 10+ years and, for a variety of reasons, has one leg shorter then the other. About 4 years ago I lengthened her femur using an old school method of distraction over an intramedullary nail. She still had to use a 6 cm external shoe lift which was clunky and she hated. Today I put in a relatively new device in her tibia called a PRECICE nail. This is an all inside nail with a gear inside turned by an external magnet she holds over the leg 3 times a day for a few minutes. The nail expands .33 mm each time for 1 mm per day. So, in 6 weeks she’ll be out to length. The old method required pins sticking out of the skin and the patient or parent has to turn a screwdriver 4 times a day (.25 x 4 for 1 mm/day). Pins can get infected, they’re bulky, kids don’t like them, etc.This is one of the jetpacks I’ve been waiting for.

So, has anyone discussed Harry Reid’s connection to turning federal land into profitable development for sons and cronies? Also hits upon campaign finance laws which seems to have made things even dirtier.

As he introduced it, Nevada’s senior U.S. senator, Democrat Harry Reid, assured colleagues that his bill (Clark County -ring any bells? – land bill) was a bipartisan measure to protect the environment and help the economy in America’s fastest-growing state.

What Reid did not explain was that the bill promised a cavalcade of benefits to real estate developers, corporations and local institutions that were paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in lobbying fees to his sons’ and son-in-law’s firms, federal lobbyist reports show.

The Howard Hughes Corp. alone paid $300,000 to the tiny Washington consulting firm of son-in-law Steven Barringer to push a provision allowing the company to acquire 998 acres of federal land ripe for development in the exploding Las Vegas metropolitan area.

Barringer is listed in federal lobbyist reports as one of Hughes’ representatives on the measure that his father-in-law introduced.

Other provisions were intended to benefit a real estate development headed by a senior partner in the Nevada law firm that employs all four of Reid’s sons — by moving the right-of-way for a federal power-transmission line off his property and onto what had been protected federal wilderness.

The governments of three of Nevada’s biggest cities — Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson — also gained from the legislation, which freed up tens of thousands of acres of federal land for development and annexation. All three were represented by Reid’s family members who contacted his staff on their clients’ behalf.

The Clark County land bill, which was approved in a late-night session just before Congress recessed in October, reflects a new twist in an old game: These days, when corporations and other interests want to cement a vital relationship with someone in Congress, they’re likely to reach out to hire a member of the family.

Comment by beasn on April 12, 2014 11:28 am
So, has anyone discussed Harry Reid’s connection to turning federal land into profitable development for sons and cronies? Also hits upon campaign finance laws which seems to have made things even dirtier.
From 2003 –http://articles.latimes.com/2003/jun/23/nation/na-sons23
As he introduced it, Nevada’s senior U.S. senator, Democrat Harry Reid, assured colleagues that his bill (Clark County -ring any bells? – land bill) was a bipartisan measure to protect the environment and help the economy in America’s fastest-growing state.
What Reid did not explain was that the bill promised a cavalcade of benefits to real estate developers, corporations and local institutions that were paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in lobbying fees to his sons’ and son-in-law’s firms, federal lobbyist reports show.
The Howard Hughes Corp. alone paid $300,000 to the tiny Washington consulting firm of son-in-law Steven Barringer to push a provision allowing the company to acquire 998 acres of federal land ripe for development in the exploding Las Vegas metropolitan area.
Barringer is listed in federal lobbyist reports as one of Hughes’ representatives on the measure that his father-in-law introduced.
Other provisions were intended to benefit a real estate development headed by a senior partner in the Nevada law firm that employs all four of Reid’s sons — by moving the right-of-way for a federal power-transmission line off his property and onto what had been protected federal wilderness.
The governments of three of Nevada’s biggest cities — Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson — also gained from the legislation, which freed up tens of thousands of acres of federal land for development and annexation. All three were represented by Reid’s family members who contacted his staff on their clients’ behalf.
The Clark County land bill, which was approved in a late-night session just before Congress recessed in October, reflects a new twist in an old game: These days, when corporations and other interests want to cement a vital relationship with someone in Congress, they’re likely to reach out to hire a member of the family.

The insane thing about that stand off is that it’s nothing more than a pissing contest right now. The imminent danger is solely created by the government’s presence. What needs to happen right now? If they back entirely away the worst that can happen is some grass gets grazed. Give the family their day in court or at a hearing in the legislature. If they’re on the wrong side of a legitimate argument let things proceed from there.

I can understand the NOTAM, but the reports of cell towers being shut down is really scary. The government just decided your 1st Amendment rights don’t count. Nor do businesses have any right to operate.

Feds are going after Bundy, but won’t do diddly squat to help ranchers on the border. We have conceded private land to cartels in AZ and NM and TX. We don’t allow our border patrol to be armed and we let them be shot at and have rocks thrown at them, but the BLM in NV has body armor and weapons. Meh.

The fed aren’t done. This whole ranch thing is a public relations nightmare right now, but the feds are gonna keep after the Bundys. Gawd, I wish somebody would nail Harry Reid’s balls to the wall on this, too.

Jay, no, but I grew up in Augusta. Masters week was our spring break, most of the high school kids worked the concession stands, and somewhere I have Fuzzy Zoeller’s autograph on a golf cap from the year he won. His caddy was a friend of my dad’s.

I get irritated when people come down on our police officers, saying that they don’t care about or respect others. Well, here is a story that clearly shows not all cops are in that category.

This story involves the police department in the small hill country town of Kerrville, Texas who reported finding a man’s body last Saturday in the early evening in the Pedernales River near the state highway-87 bridge.

The dead man’s name would not be released until his family had been notified. The victim apparently drowned due to excessive beer consumption while visiting “someone” in Fredericksburg .

Wiser, I don’t know about anyone else, but I didn’t feel that it would be proper for someone like me – a Texan – to call in to a show that is over 1200 miles away. I guess I just assumed that you guys would rather “keep it local”, as it were. Let folks from the area call in and hear themselves on the radio, y’know?

Today was the definition of retail hell. Everyone was being an angry asshole. I was mixing it up in Spanglish and English!!! Roberta was filling the strawberry pod and a Member told her to “Get the fuck out of my way!” Old, white lady. When Q-tips are dropping f-bombs, you know shit just got real.

This was NE Sudden Spring Eruption Day. This Winter was sooooo long and sooo cold, and late to break. So today, the weather finally really broke.

As soon as I got in to work this morning they hustled me outside to deal with the crowds, so I worked in the garden center most of the day. Whole families, out to buy posies and mulch. Everyone shopping in the warm sun with smiles like to crack their faces in half. It was glorious.

Laura, they should have you in the garden center all the time. “The Marchioness of Mulch.”

heh change of subject, just reading Steyn: As the English barrister F E Smith is said to have responded when a judge asked if he was trying to show contempt for this court, “No, my Lord. I am attempting to conceal it.”

It was a beautiful day here today, and DD#1 was here for a couple of hours before she had to catch a flight back to DC (she flew in Thursday night for a Friday meeting). They’re forecasting thunderstorms all day tomorrow; Mr. TiFW heard they are expecting high winds and hail.

20$ story. We can’t do returns on SNAP eligible items without a RCPT. Only exchanges for SNAP eligible items of equal or greater value. Woman brings in 2 M&M variety packs. Overbought for a fundraiser. Didn’t have RCPT. She wanted a Giftcard for gas. Back and forth. She thought I was saying she was on SNAP, because she’s Messican. I explained that all non-RCPT returns are treated the same way, because we don’t know who is on SNAP. She ended up being pissed that $30 candy variety packs are SNAP eligible.

I may have worn-out my welcome at PJM by commenting on Wretchards post about English leftists being pedophiles:

“Sex abuse by leftists?
How could you possibly suggest such a thing without referring to all the whispered(behind internet hands)hints that a certain Nevada senator is, in fact, a pederast?
Why yes, the very senator behind the Nevada Bundy-Ranch -vs- the BLM scandal.
Of course, the fact that the current BLM head is a former “Public Land Use Advisor” to that senator is just a coincidence…
The fact that all his sons are working for the firm representing a Chinese solar outfit that is buying Nevada Real Estate for pennies on the dollar is also a coincidence.
I have no direct knowledge why said senator is commonly known as “The Searchlight Strangler”.
Thank God our politics are not as messed-up as those in England…”

Had a customer today who wanted to talk Woodchucks. They are undermining a structure. She was catching and releasing them to only two miles away. I had to explain the circle of life to her. The kind of circle that abruptly truncates from ‘respirating mammal’ to ‘blowflies and bacteria.’

I do that with fishing spiders and wolf spiders, and any others that I know for sure are harmless and beneficial. Most everything else I will kill. Though, we really have almost zero dangerous arachnids here.

We’re not supposed to have Brown Recluse Spiders this far North. RL friend got bit by a spider while hiking in the Bosque. Went to ER. ER Dr told her that we don’t have Brown Recluse this far North, even though her spider bite looked like a standard BR bite. Sent her home. She lost a chunk of her calf and nearly lost her lower leg. I know people that catch and release BRs in their home states.

Hey Oso. The Feds really screwed the APD. I figured they’d whitewash it. Killing the hobo really pissed people off. Cops must hate video. Sure looked like the guy was surrendering, then they turned the dog loose on him just for fun.

Pepe, Mayor Marty capped lawsuits at $150K at the same time that Gov Fatass did away with the DP. Followed soon enough after John Hyde and Astorga that APD just started shooting and settling. RL friend responded to a psychiatric PU and ended up shooting and killing an 18 yr old with a knife. He was hounded out of BCSO by the media and her family. I think the Popo should tell the families to deliver their fucking problems to facilities and leave the cops out of it.

One last story before family bedtime. UNM used to have a notorious street denizen known as Carlos the Ragman. He was a total burnout. He accosted me in front of The Purple Hippo and screamed total filth at me. My Psych 101 Prof was a witness. No one did anything. I punched Ragman and ran away. Called the cops. Got a lot of BS about how he wasn’t violent and he was off his meds. A few months later, he grabbed me in the grocery store and started shaking and yelling at me. I hit him. I went to the store manager and asked him to call the cops. Same thing about Ragman being non-violent and how no one could understand why he was targeting me. I go home to Texas for the summer. Someone torches Ragman in the alley where he sleeps. Fucking cops actually questioned me when I came back to NM. RL friends were people of interest for a little while too.

One last story before family bedtime. UNM used to have a notorious street denizen known as Carlos the Ragman. He was a total burnout. He accosted me in front of The Purple Hippo and screamed total filth at me. My Psych 101 Prof was a witness. No one did anything. I punched Ragman and ran away. Called the cops. Got a lot of BS about how he wasn’t violent and he was off his meds. A few months later, he grabbed me in the grocery store and started shaking and yelling at me. I hit him. I went to the store manager and asked him to call the cops. Same thing about Ragman being non-violent and how no one could understand why he was targeting me. I go home to Texas for the summer. Someone torches Ragman in the alley where he sleeps. Fucking cops actually questioned me when I came back to NM. RL friends were people of interest for a little while too.
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We’re at 40 degrees now with rain on the way. Yesterday was warmer and sunny. When I half listened to the news yesterday I heard the word “snow” and nearly had whiplash turning to the screen. I think that’s in the western mountains though.